Lofty plans take shape to build Boston’s third-tallest tower

If Richard Friedman gets his way, the president of Cambridge-based Carpenter & Co. will build the Hub’s third tallest building.

Friedman, best known for his transformation of the former Charles Street jail into the Liberty Hotel, is seeking approval for a 690-foot hotel and condominium tower at Belvidere, Dalton and Clearway streets in the Back Bay. The new skyscraper would rival the John Hancock tower at 790 feet and the 749-foot Prudential building.

Carpenter & Co. of Cambridge was selected by the Christian Science Church to develop a parking lot and a triangular green space the church owns across from the Sheraton hotel. At about 49 stories, the 712,500-square-foot hotel and condominium skyscraper will be slightly shorter than the Prudential tower’s 52 floors. Chicago-based Pritzker Realty Group, the co-developer, will build a 237,500-square-foot, mid-rise apartment building at 285 feet, or about 24 stories, next door on the parking lot space. New York-based architect Harry Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, who designed the nearby John Hancock Tower, and Cambridge Seven Associates, will serve as the architectural team for both buildings.

Under the terms of the deal that won’t be disclosed until the closing, Friedman will purchase the triangular space while Pritzker will buy the parking lot. The new development reflects several years of planning by the church and the Boston Redevelopment Authority to redesign the church’s 15-acre plaza. The master plan allows three towers containing nearly 1 million square feet of space. Plans for the third building along Huntington Avenue have not been finalized.

The height of the tallest building has raised a few eyebrows, considering that the original plan called for the tower to be 500 feet, not nearly 700 feet. Friedman insists the total square footage for the tower is unchanged, and that the Christian Science Church is simply adding about 15 stories in his building and lowering the Huntington Avenue building’s height.

Sybil CooperKing, who serves as the representative for the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay on the city’s Impact Advisory Group, is raising questions about the height of the tower that Friedman wants to build.

“We are very concerned about how the height effects the experience on the street,” she said. “You don’t want to be blown off your feet when you’re walking by the building. Is it going to be a comfortable space to walk around?”

George Thrush, co-chairman of the Impact Advisory Group and director of Northeastern University’s School of Architecture, said he will make the case for the tower’s height during the approval process. He said the site is among the best places for a tall building because the shadows it would cast would be on other tall buildings, not on public spaces or tree-lined streets.

“Boston is one of the most vital economies among American cities and in order to remain competitive, we must build more housing, and height creates more density that gives us better use of transportation resources,” he said. “If done well, tall buildings become part of a city’s identity. When you see the Hancock and the Pru towers, you know where you are.”

Still, Thrush said there are ways to mitigate the experience of a tall building on the street. He said a preliminary drawing of the tall tower is undifferentiated from top to bottom and that needs to change.

“There must to be a break at the 50- to 70-foot height so when the wind comes down the tall building, it slams into the top of a podium rather than the pedestrians walking by on the street,” he said. “The Hancock building is the most egregious offender and that’s why it’s so windy over there. The wind comes right down the face of the building and blows you away.”